Songwriting Legend Curly Putman (1930-2016)

If you’ve listened to Cowpoke Radio for any significant length of time — let’s say ten or fifteen minutes — then you’ve heard a song written by Claude “Curly” Putman.

There’s Tammy Wynettes’s “D-I-V-O-R-C-E” and George Jones’ “He Stopped Loving Her Today.” He wrote Dolly Parton’s breakthrough 1967 hit “Dumb Blonde” and “My Elusive Dreams” by David Houston and Tammy Wynette, as well as “Green, Green Grass of Home,” which you’ll hear on The Cowpoke in the version by Porter Wagoner, although Tom Jones later spun it into a worldwide pop hit.

Curly Putman, who wrote all of those songs and many more, died on Sunday (Oct. 30) at his home just outside of Nashville, a few weeks shy of his 86th birthday. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1976, and scored a rare “double” with his writing partner, Bobby Braddock, on back-to-back honors for Song of the Year from the Country Music Association in 1980 and 1981 — both years for “He Stopped Loving Her Today.”